The invention relates to the fields of printing, scanning and copying, and more particularly to printing, scanning and copying using field emitter arrays.
Current printing processors are inherently serial in nature and rely on the use of light, typically by means of forming an optical image on a light sensitive drum to effect their printing operation. One reference, U.S. Pat. No. 5,166,709, does disclose a printer which utilizes an array of charge deposition structures which deposit an electrostatic latent image on an imaging member. However, this reference is specifically designed for gated electrode operations and utilizes a driving circuit to operate its field emission devices in a voltage range lying below the Paschen curve. The reference clarifies that for gated structures, operation below the Paschen curve is essential in order to prevent shorting of the printing signal between the cathode and the gate.
Referring to the scanning arts, conventional scanners detect patterned information in one of two ways. One method uses CCD based scanners comprising a CCD array for gathering reflected light, and generating a signal representative thereof, and then digitizing that signal. This CCD array is smaller than one scanned line, so that the scanning is physically sequential, not only within the document, but also within the one scanned line.
Other scanning processors are designed around laser scanning, which uses the reflectance of a laser beam from a target surface to create a digital stream of information. The laser process is faster than the CCD process, but is also more expensive. Both of these techniques are serial in nature.